Former refuge manager takes heat for saving frogs

A federal biologist who was trying to save an Arizona
frog from extinction recently found himself facing criminal
charges.

The Chiricahua leopard frog once hopped from
central Arizona to western New Mexico. But habitat loss, predation
by exotic bullfrogs and fishes, and drought had reduced the
population to a few small ponds in the Altar Valley, southwest of
Tucson.

In 2002, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began
work to list the amphibian under the Endangered Species Act. When
drought threatened the remaining Altar Valley frogs, Wayne
Shifflett, manager of the nearby Buenos Aires National Wildlife
Refuge, suggested moving them from state land onto the refuge. But
local ranchers — including Sue Chilton, who chaired the
Arizona Game and Fish Commission for the last five years —
objected, saying they feared liability under the Endangered Species
Act should the frogs turn up on their grazing allotments (HCN,
2/21/05: Rancher wins big in libel suit against enviros). In
response, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed that Shifflett would
have to get a state permit to move the frogs.

But the
state repeatedly denied that permit, although it allowed University
of Arizona biologist Cecil Schwalbe to transfer the remaining frogs
from their drying pool to his own backyard pond in 2003. Shifflett,
fearing that the confined adult frogs would eat their young, then
took it upon himself to move 400 tadpoles to the refuge. He had a
federal Endangered Species permit, but not the required state
permit. The agency removed Shifflett from his post last spring, and
he retired shortly thereafter.

In February, the federal
government filed criminal charges against him for illegally moving
the frogs, now listed as threatened. Rather than waste time in
court, Shifflett agreed to pay a $3,500 fine. Still, he says he
doesn’t regret his decision: "How often in your career do you
have an opportunity to save an entire species?"